Sports Massage

Sports Massage plays a pivotal role in keeping athletes at all levels in tip-top shape. From cross-country runners, to football players and power-lifters sports massage helps keep these individuals loosened up and ready to go. Sports massage isn’t just for before an event either, it is helpful for after an event as well. Sports massage allows the player to relax their muscles, which helps to decrease the chance of sports-related stress injuries. Sports Massage is also a key element in helping athletes recover from injuries as well as preventing injuries. Utilizing sports massage can help athletes maintain, and even improve their conditioning and training. Three main types of massage are integrated into a therapeutic Sports Massage session to maximize the health and repair benefits of the session.

Effleurage

Effleurage is a Swedish technique that translates to “touch lightly.” Unlike many other massage techniques, effleurage can be modified to work over small or large parts of the body. During the beginning and end of a Sports Massage session, superficial effleurage is used to soothe the body. After the beginning of superficial Effleurage, deep Effleurage is used to apply pressure to stretch and warm up the muscle tissue to prepare it for a deeper massage.

Petrissage

Following Effleurage, a certified and highly trained LaVida Massage Therapist will perform Pretrissage on the body. Petrissage is the act of kneading the body to stimulate the underlying tissue, while also increasing the blood supply to the massage area. Petrissage integrates a technique that concentrates on only one muscle, or small group of muscles at a time. Other common applications of Pretrissage include skin rolling and/or picking up and squeezing of the skin. Petrissage allows the therapist to work on individual muscles that the guest may be having trouble with.

Frictions

Frictions are often performed for players who are injured or are about to undergo incredibly strenuous activities where an injury is likely. By influencing cell behavior in soft cell tissues, friction massage helps to relieve pain from affected muscles by deeply penetrating them with several different fingertip movements. In more serious sports injuries, the frictions portion of sports massage is applied to help reduce scar tissue in parts of the body where adhesion’s are likely to occur. Because this type of sports massage is mostly used for those who are injured, it is important to keep in mind that integrating this technique into the Sports Massage may be painful at first but will prove to be beneficial in the long run.

Physical Therapy

Therapeutic massage is historically one of the oldest forms of physical therapy. In a world so full of changing medical practices and beliefs, the basic art of massage has remained mostly unchanged. Sports massage is incredibly important for athletes to maintain their prime performance condition. Like with any other treatment or physical therapy, one must make sure they seek out a certified Massage Therapist to be certain they are receiving the best and proper care. Not using a professional risks injury or further injury and puts one’s athletic career or participation in jeopardy.

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